A Resource Collection for Members of the UMD Community
OIRC and IRC@UMD Resources
Information and Materials to Support Integrity and Responsible Conduct in Research, Scholarly, and Professional Activities at UMD
What's on this page?
The collection of resources on this page provides information, tools, guidance, and materials to support integrity and responsible conduct in research, scholarly, and professional activities at UMD.
This collection is not intended to present an exhaustive list of resources or to indicate institutional endorsement of the content or recommendations from external sources. However, these sources of information may be helpful in identifying best practices, general principles, or tools that can be modified for application within a specific scholarly discipline or area of research.
How are the resources organized?
Resources are organized by topic and within the topic by category, when appropriate. For a brief description of each category see the "Resource Categories" section.
Resource Categories
Institutional Resources and Guidance: Resources offered by UMD offices/functions and other institutional policies, procedures, or guidelines.
Funder/Regulatory Agency Resources and Guidance: Resources (e.g., tools, written policies/procedures/guidelines, educational resources) offered by federal agencies to present expectations for and/or support institutions and individual researchers in conducting their research responsibly and with integrity.
Other Resources and Guidance: Resources offered by other sources and entities (e.g., relevant literature, guidance from various professional organizations).
Supplemental Course Materials: Resources to accompany the content presented within a given IRC@UMD IRC-R course.
(Responsible) Authorship and Publication Practices
Institutional Resources and Guidance
University of Maryland Policy and Procedures Concerning Scholarly Misconduct (see the following sections: Improprieties of Authorship, Plagiarism, Self-Plagiarism, and Abuse of Confidentiality/Misappropriation of Ideas)
IRC-R: Overview (2025) and IRC-R: Authorship (2025) courses (Open Learning Integrity and Responsible Conduct Catalog)
UMD Research Integrity Officer (“RIO”) (for addressing authorship/publication practices that could constitute research/scholarly misconduct)
University Ombuds Services (for assistance in identifying possible pathways to addressing authorship disputes)
University Libraries:
Disclosure Office, Division of Research (for assistance addressing potential conflicts of interest that may require disclosure in publications)
Funder/Regulatory Agency Resources and Guidance
EPA - Scientific Integrity: Best Practices for Designating Authorship
Office of Research Integrity (ORI) resources (authorship and publication)
Other Resources and Guidance
Collaborative Research
Institutional Resources and Guidance
Research Security Office (for various considerations related to collaborating with international researchers/entities)
Instructions for Storing and Transmitting Export Controlled Data in Box
IRC-R: Overview course (Open Learning Integrity and Responsible Conduct Catalog)
Funder/Regulatory Agency Resources and Guidance
National Institutes of Health, National Cancer Institute, Collaboration and Team Science Field Guide (2018)
Supplemental Course Materials
Conflict of Interest and Conflict of Commitment
Institutional Resources and Guidance
Division of Research - Office of Research Transparency and Outreach
University of Maryland Policy on Conflict of Interest and Conflict of Commitment
Resources for identifying and disclosing outside activities, interests, and other forms of support that could give rise to conflicts or other researcher obligations:
Funder/Regulatory Agency Resources and Guidance
Other Resources and Guidance
(Responsible) Data Practices
Institutional Resources and Guidance
University Libraries – Data Services
UM Ventures - “Lab Notebooks: Protecting Your Intellectual Property”
UMD Export Compliance Office/Research Security Office - “Storing and Transmitting [Export Controlled] Data in Box”
IRC-R: Overview course (Open Learning Integrity and Responsible Conduct Catalog)
Funder/Regulatory Agency Resources and Guidance
Other Resources and Guidance
Open Science Framework (UMD) - UMD is an institutional partner of the Open Science Framework (OSF), an online research management and collaboration platform from the Center for Open Science that enables researchers to easily manage a project throughout its lifecycle and collaborate with others across institutions. Use of the OSF system also makes research outputs and data more transparent, discoverable, and reusable. UMD researchers can log into the OSF portal with their university credentials at https://osf.umd.edu.
Integrity and Responsible Conduct - Policies, Rules, Regulations, and Requirements (Quick Links)
Institutional Resources and Guidance
Policies administered by the UMD Office of Integrity and Responsible Conduct (ORIC):
Funder/Regulatory Agency Resources and Guidance
Office of Science and Technology Policy: Federal Research Misconduct Policy (65 FR 76260)
U.S. Public Health Service (e.g., NIH): “Public Health Service Policies on Research Misconduct; Final Rule”
(42 C.F.R. Parts 50 and 93 (2005); 42 C.F.R. Part 93 (2024))NSF: “Research Misconduct” (45 C.F.R. Part 689)
USDA: “Research Institutions Conducting USDA-Funded Extramural Research; Research Misconduct” (2 C.F.R. 422)
Intellectual Property
Institutional Resources and Guidance
- IRC-R: Overview course (Open Learning Integrity and Responsible Conduct Catalog)
Other Resources and Guidance
Mentor/Mentee Responsibilities and Relationships
Institutional Resources and Guidance
IRC-R: Overview and IRC-R: Mentorship courses (Open Learning Integrity and Responsible Conduct Catalog)
Funder/Regulatory Agency Resources and Guidance
ORI: "Mentoring International Postdocs: Working Together to Advance Science and Careers"
Supporting Mentoring and Positive Research Climates (NIH OITE)
Other Resources and Guidance
"Advisor, Teacher, Role Model, Friend: On Being a Mentor to Students in Scienc…
"Entering Mentoring: A Seminar to Train a New Generation of Scientists"
"The Mentoring Continuum: From Graduate School through Tenure" (Syracuse University Press)
Center for the Improvement of Mentored Experiences in Research (CIMER)
Compact Between Postdoctoral Appointees and Their Mentors (AAMC)
Peer Review
Institutional Resources and Guidance
University of Maryland Policy and Procedures Concerning Scholarly Misconduct (See “Abuse of Confidentiality/Misappropriation of Ideas” (I. Definitions))
IRC-R: Overview course (Open Learning Integrity and Responsible Conduct Catalog)
Funder/Regulatory Agency Resources and Guidance
Other Resources and Guidance
Research Misconduct
Institutional Resources and Guidance
University of Maryland Policy and Procedures Concerning Scholarly Misconduct
Office of Integrity and Responsible Conduct (“OIRC”)
Research Integrity Officer (rio@umd.edu)
- IRC-R: Overview course (Open Learning Integrity and Responsible Conduct Catalog)
Funder/Regulatory Agency Resources and Guidance
Office of Science and Technology Policy: Federal Research Misconduct Policy (65 FR 76260)
U.S. Public Health Service (e.g., NIH): “Public Health Service Policies on Research Misconduct; Final Rule”
(42 C.F.R. Parts 50 and 93 (2005); 42 C.F.R. Part 93 (2024))NSF: “Research Misconduct” (45 C.F.R. Part 689)
USDA: “Research Institutions Conducting USDA-Funded Extramural Research; Research Misconduct” (2 C.F.R. 422)
US Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Research Integrity ("ORI")
Other Resources and Guidance
Rigor, Reproducibility, and Transparency
Institutional Resources and Guidance
IRC-R: Overview course (Open Learning Integrity and Responsible Conduct Catalog)
Funder/Regulatory Agency Resources and Guidance
Other Resources and Guidance
Reporting Standards and Availability of Data, Materials, Code and Protocols (Nature)
Open Science Framework (UMD) - UMD is an institutional partner of the Open Science Framework (OSF), an online research management and collaboration platform from the Center for Open Science that enables researchers to easily manage a project throughout its lifecycle and collaborate with others across institutions. Use of the OSF system also makes research outputs and data more transparent, discoverable, and reusable. UMD researchers can log into the OSF portal with their university credentials at https://osf.umd.edu.
Supplemental Course Materials
UMD Offices with Helpful Resources Related to Integrity and Responsible Conduct Topics
- Office of Integrity and Responsible Conduct (“OIRC”), Office of the President – “Address[es] concerns of professional and research/scholarly misconduct[, promotes] appropriate practices[, and supports] UMD in fulfilling its mission of achieving excellence in teaching, research, and public service.”
- Disclosure Office, Division of Research – Provides assistance to members of the University community to recognize, disclose, and appropriately address real or perceived conflicts of interest.
- Research Security Office, Division of Research – Helps “researchers navigate … complex federal requirements while fostering international collaborations and protecting the integrity of the research enterprise from undue external influence and misappropriation of information.”
- Office of Research Transparency and Outreach, Division of Research – Implements and provides oversight for federal, state, and local research-related requirements of several key policies (e.g., the Contractor Code of Business Ethics and Conduct Policy, the University of Maryland Policy on Consulting (II.3.10[E]), and the federal requirements on current and pending (other) support); works to build campus awareness of these requirements and policies through training and outreach.
- Human Research Protection Program/Institutional Review Board Office, Division of Research – “[P]erforms ethical review of proposed research to help assure the protection of the rights and welfare of human participants [and] approves the initiation of and conducts periodic reviews of research involving human participants.”
- Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (“IACUC”), Division of Research – Works “to ensure the proper care of animals used for teaching and research [and] implements federal and local policies [to ensure] excellent care for animals.”
- Department of Laboratory Animal Resources (“DLAR”), Division of Research – “[P]rovides the expertise, care and resources necessary to ensure the welfare of university animals through humane care and use.”
- Department of Environmental Safety, Sustainability, and Risk (“ESSR”), Office of Research Safety (“ORS”) – “[Provides] leadership in the identification and management of safety and environmental risks and [fosters] safety and sustainability.”
- Data Services, University Libraries – “[Provides] expert guidance, project consultation, and technical assistance on various aspects of data management and curation[, consults on] data management planning, data sharing and publishing, long-term preservation, and related topics[, and in] some cases, [provides] data architecture and governance, data transformation and manipulation, and custom software development.”
- UM Ventures – Works “to commercialize technologies and expand industry collaboration.”
- University Ombuds Services – Provides assistance in addressing a variety of concerns brought forth by members of the university community, with services tailored to students, faculty, and staff.
- Office of Civil Rights & Sexual Misconduct – Administers the University of Maryland’s non-discrimination policies and works to foster a learning and working environment free from all forms of discrimination and harassment, including sexual misconduct.
- Bias Incident Support Services (Office of Belonging and Community) – Oversees bias reporting and response; mobilizes campus support services to aid individuals affected by hate-bias incidents; coordinates prevention efforts.
- Dean of Students Office (Division of Student Affairs) – Provides care, advocacy, and education through student-centered resources, services, and partnerships that support academic success and personal wellness.
- Faculty Staff Assistance Program – Offers assessments, referrals, coaching, consultations, and short-term counseling services for a variety of work-related conflicts and personal issues.
Special announcement: UMD is now an institutional partner of the Open Science Framework (OSF), an online research management and collaboration platform from the Center for Open Science that enables researchers to easily manage a project throughout its lifecycle and collaborate with others across institutions. Use of the OSF system also makes research outputs and data more transparent, discoverable, and reusable. UMD researchers can log into the new OSF portal with their university credentials at https://osf.umd.edu.
This page will be continuously updated. Suggestions for additional resources can be sent to ircp@umd.edu.